Visiting author

Discovery Middle School students meet best-selling author

Discovery Middle School students meet best-selling author

March 22, 2006|KIM KILBRIDE Tribune Staff Writer

An editor is like an English teacher on steroids. That's according to award-winning author -- and teacher and speaker and poet -- Sharon Draper. She visited Discovery Middle School recently, sharing her wit and wisdom with students and staff. Draper, whose young-adult fiction delves into weighty social issues such as child abuse and suicide, led an all-school assembly with students in the morning and a question-and-answer session with a couple of select groups of kids later in the day. Draper's steroid-pumped- English-teacher analogy came in response to a student's question about the timeframe for publishing a book. While it takes about six months to write, Draper said, it takes an equal amount of time for a book to be edited. "Imagine your corrections from your English teacher multiplied by 5,742," she told the middle schoolers packed into a corner of the library to chat with her. The students were captivated by Draper, often hanging on her every word. Their hands flew up in the air to ask questions beyond the scheduled 45-minute session. Afterward, several sixth-graders took a moment before returning to class to talk about Draper's work and what it was like to meet a New York Times best-selling author. Shannon Kearney said she "fell in love" with Draper's "Tears of a Tiger," the first in the "Hazelwood High Trilogy." "I was so attached to it," she said. "I cried at the end ... The tragedy just makes you want to keep reading." Draper's stories are so powerful because they're about real life, Halie Ottman said. "You know it could have happened," Samantha Harvey added. The kids were thrilled to have met Draper. "How many times does an author come to your school and let you ask questions?" Samantha said. So, do any of these middle schoolers have aspirations of becoming published writers themselves? "Yes!" Gabriella Green practically yelled, as echoes of "oh yeah" emanated from the background and heads shook in affirmation. To learn more about Sharon Draper and her work, check out www.sharondraper.com. Staff writer Kim Kilbride: kkilbride@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6554